When life gives you lemons, don't panic like I do.
Mania NM request!
[General]
Check AIMod. A few errors across all diffs.
Difficulty names: If the diffs aren't yours (i.e. made by someone else), make that clear by having X's Normal (for example) as the difficulty name. Also, add their names to the tags.
Not too much of a complaint, but the hitsound importing is pretty meh and implies a hitsound copier was used. Be aware that the copier also copies sounds to the storyboard (accessed in mania by pressing tab), which can be disorientating in the lower diffs when you hear a hitsound where there's no note.
A few timing points that don't really appear to do anything.
Make sure misc. toggles are consistent across all diffs. Since there's going to be a storyboard, ensure that widescreen support is enabled and decide whether you need to display an epilepsy warning.
0|1|2|3 (I'll have a look at the HD diff for this)
(Side note: change NM to od7 hp7, because at the moment it's far too high)
Hope this helps and best of luck!
Mania NM request!
[General]
Check AIMod. A few errors across all diffs.
Difficulty names: If the diffs aren't yours (i.e. made by someone else), make that clear by having X's Normal (for example) as the difficulty name. Also, add their names to the tags.
Not too much of a complaint, but the hitsound importing is pretty meh and implies a hitsound copier was used. Be aware that the copier also copies sounds to the storyboard (accessed in mania by pressing tab), which can be disorientating in the lower diffs when you hear a hitsound where there's no note.
A few timing points that don't really appear to do anything.
Make sure misc. toggles are consistent across all diffs. Since there's going to be a storyboard, ensure that widescreen support is enabled and decide whether you need to display an epilepsy warning.
Something I added in my modding queue forum thread after you posted that I think you might find useful
There is both a Standard Guide and Simplified Guide available for use.
The two key things are:
First thing's first. I'm going to say mapping notes to vocals or to more or less any form of lead for an extended period of time is strongly discouraged and should be avoided. There's nothing technically wrong with it, but with following sounds for mania (what you should be doing, might I add), it can get a little cluttered, particularly for 4K and following vocals is the first thing to be dropped.
Going off of that, unlike standard, there are no filler notes in mania. That means that, if there aren't any sounds about, there shouldn't be anything there. Vocals aren't really considered as sounds for this as they're not as clear-cut as something like percussion. If there are notes where there aren't sounds, then those are ghost notes.
Avoid "anti-ghosting" as well, which is not mapping something that should be. For example, something like a snare sound shouldn't be missed. It's more often than not a problem for easier difficulties, as you can't really map many things that appear on 1/4s at high BPMs. The easy solution is to "cover the sound" with a long note (LN). A good place where people use this is in drum fills.
The thing to come after this is consistency, which is essentially mapping the same sound with exactly the same number of notes, well, consistently. A common thing would be to map bass kicks for the harder difficulties as doubles, and this would be the same throughout the rest of the map. Occasionally this can be broken, but there needs to be a very good reason as to why.
"Variety is the spice of life", as they say. Remains true for this too, you know. It's not wrong to be repetitive, but being varied (while being consistent) can make a map interesting.
Another important factor is playability. Essentially, it's trying to ensure that the patterns you map are somewhat comfortable. Of course, you can go against this, but you're going to need a reason to the tons of modders who will point it out. It's important to playtest your map often and think about the players it will be aimed for. (The most common way most people do this is through spreading the notes out across all of the columns evenly.)
Lastly, progression. Easier difficulties should essentially be a more basic version of harder difficulties, rather than a different entity altogether. Simply, there shouldn't be anything in an Easy or Normal that would be absent in a Hard or an Insane, for example. The other thing is, there can't really be too much of a difference between difficulties, as the jump would be unreasonable to players trying to progress onto the harder difficulties.
If anything, practice will improve your mapping skills, as it does anyone. But knowing about these will certainly help, as it has for me.
Of course, if there's anything here that you don't understand, feel free to PM me somewhere.
- Check AIMod. The number of times I come in and there are still problems here is crazy. It's often just simple checks like unsnapped notes and kiai toggles that are overlooked.
- The maximum bitrate for audio files is 192kbps, minimum 128kbps. Check this by looking at the properties of the audio file in the song folder. AIMod will also try to pick up this problem.
- Custom hitsounds must have a maximum delay of 5ms. Preferably, they should have no delay at all.
- Background need to optimally be 1920*1080 (as these are the maximum rankable dimensions.)
- Don't leave unused files in folders, as they take up unwanted space since the maximum permissible folder size is 30MB.
- OD and HP: Generally speaking, between 6 and 9 for both is fine, but don't do something silly like odhp 9 for an Easy or odhp6 for an Extra. Usually having these values up to 1.0 apart is normal, as long as the idea of progression is still present within the map.
There is both a Standard Guide and Simplified Guide available for use.
The two key things are:
- Make sure they're averaged so the overall section is still sightreadable (best way of doing this is maintaining the 1x average mentioned in the guides)
- Use them appropriately. There shouldn't be any random SVs in the map.
First thing's first. I'm going to say mapping notes to vocals or to more or less any form of lead for an extended period of time is strongly discouraged and should be avoided. There's nothing technically wrong with it, but with following sounds for mania (what you should be doing, might I add), it can get a little cluttered, particularly for 4K and following vocals is the first thing to be dropped.
Going off of that, unlike standard, there are no filler notes in mania. That means that, if there aren't any sounds about, there shouldn't be anything there. Vocals aren't really considered as sounds for this as they're not as clear-cut as something like percussion. If there are notes where there aren't sounds, then those are ghost notes.
Avoid "anti-ghosting" as well, which is not mapping something that should be. For example, something like a snare sound shouldn't be missed. It's more often than not a problem for easier difficulties, as you can't really map many things that appear on 1/4s at high BPMs. The easy solution is to "cover the sound" with a long note (LN). A good place where people use this is in drum fills.
The thing to come after this is consistency, which is essentially mapping the same sound with exactly the same number of notes, well, consistently. A common thing would be to map bass kicks for the harder difficulties as doubles, and this would be the same throughout the rest of the map. Occasionally this can be broken, but there needs to be a very good reason as to why.
"Variety is the spice of life", as they say. Remains true for this too, you know. It's not wrong to be repetitive, but being varied (while being consistent) can make a map interesting.
Another important factor is playability. Essentially, it's trying to ensure that the patterns you map are somewhat comfortable. Of course, you can go against this, but you're going to need a reason to the tons of modders who will point it out. It's important to playtest your map often and think about the players it will be aimed for. (The most common way most people do this is through spreading the notes out across all of the columns evenly.)
Lastly, progression. Easier difficulties should essentially be a more basic version of harder difficulties, rather than a different entity altogether. Simply, there shouldn't be anything in an Easy or Normal that would be absent in a Hard or an Insane, for example. The other thing is, there can't really be too much of a difference between difficulties, as the jump would be unreasonable to players trying to progress onto the harder difficulties.
If anything, practice will improve your mapping skills, as it does anyone. But knowing about these will certainly help, as it has for me.
Of course, if there's anything here that you don't understand, feel free to PM me somewhere.
0|1|2|3 (I'll have a look at the HD diff for this)
(Side note: change NM to od7 hp7, because at the moment it's far too high)
HD
OD:7.5 HP:7.5
I feel like there are too many LNs here. Might just be me, I don't know.
I feel like there are too many LNs here. Might just be me, I don't know.
- 00:00:474 - I'm not particularly sure why NM appears to be denser than HD here. Perhaps it would be better to think about making the layering a little more consistent between these difficulties.
- 00:00:474 (474|3,474|0,474|2) - Probably want to remove one of the notes here since having 3 looks a little odd intensity-wise.
- 00:04:825 (4825|0,5283|3) - Not sure what these LNs are following.
- 00:07:115 (7115|2,7191|1,7267|2,7344|3,7573|2,7649|1,7725|2,7802|1,7802|3) - This pattern feels like it's a little bit too much for cols 1 and 2. Maybe a little too much strain on the left hand as well, since there's also the LN to think about. Actually, after looking a little closer, 00:07:573 (7573|2,7649|1) - these are ghosts because the final burst is 1/4 from 00:07:687.
- 00:10:550 (10550|3) - What's this LN mapped to?
- 00:14:099 - Note? It's part of the 1/4 burst.
- 00:15:130 - Double/Triple (whichever you intend on using) for crash
- 00:17:878 (17878|2) - What's the LN for?
- 00:18:565 - There's a 1/6 drum burst here if you wanted to.
- 00:18:794 (18794|3) - I'd suggest removing this LN since it cramps up the playfield a little too much.
- 00:19:939 (19939|1,20054|1) - There's not really any musical reason to me to have the two notes in the same column.
- 00:20:397 (20397|0,20397|1,20855|2,20855|1,21313|3,21313|2) - I reckon it would be better to have each of these being 1/2 beat in length. Try it out.
- 00:26:122 (26122|3) - Consistency-wise, I think you're better removing this since the current pattern is singles for kicks (like 00:23:374 and 00:24:290)
- 00:27:725 (27725|2) - Move into col 3 to prevent stack?
- 00:27:954 (27954|0) - Remove for consistency?
- 00:30:817 (30817|3) - I'd remove this as well. (Firstly, it's on just the vocals, but more importantly, it's inconsistent with earlier.)
- 00:31:504 (31504|1) - ^
- 00:33:222 - You'll want another note here.
- 00:34:596 (34596|2,34672|1,34748|0,34825|1,34901|2,34977|1) - What are you mapping here? The 1/4s are still going yet this is 1/6?
- 00:35:054 (35054|2) - I'd stop this a beat earlier and make 00:35:741 (35741|1) a double.
- 00:36:313 - note?
- 00:37:115 (37115|0,38031|3) - I don't know what either of these two LNs are for.
- 00:39:405 (39405|3) - The sound this is mapped to is actually quite short imo, so perhaps just a normal note here.
- 00:43:069 (43069|2) - Make this 1/2 beat to make the following burst a little more comfortable.
- 00:43:374 (43374|1,43451|0,43527|1) - This is a 1/8 burst, not 1/6. Also, could this not be all in the same hand? It causes a little bit too much strain as it is.
- 00:45:244 - note?
- 00:49:710 (49710|0) - double for crash and to cap the burst?
- 01:01:390 (61390|2,61390|3,61390|1) - Having a triple here and only here feels a little odd to me, so consider reducing it to a double.
- 01:03:909 (63909|2,64138|2,64367|2,64596|2,64825|2,65054|2,65283|2,65512|2) - This is one long anchor...
- 01:11:924 (71924|3,72382|3) - A shield like this feels a little unfair for this difficulty, so I'd suggest moving the normal note to another column. (Moreso since there's another LN to think about in this hand)
- 01:22:000 - There's a 1/4 fill here that goes unmapped.
- 01:22:916 (82916|3,82916|2,82916|1) - Not really sure why these LNs finish at different times.
- 01:24:061 (84061|2,84061|0,84138|3,84138|1,84214|2,84214|0) - Make these all singles. Having a split jumptrill like this is a sudden and uncomfortable difficulty spike that I think is unnecessary.
- 01:24:290 (84290|3,84290|1) - Have these as 1/1 in length instead of 3/4.
- 01:35:168 (95168|1) - ghost
- 02:46:275 - You're definitely going to need a note here to cap the LN, particularly considering what's next.
- 02:46:390 (166390|3,166390|0,166504|2,166504|1,166619|3,166619|0,166733|2,166733|1,166848|0,166848|3,166962|1,166962|2,167077|3,167077|0,167191|2,167191|1) - There's some unnecessary doubles and LNs in here. Try something like this instead.
- 03:01:161 (181161|1,181390|0,181390|3) - Might be a little awkward for players to time this correctly.
- 03:22:229 (202229|2,202344|2,202573|0,202687|0,202802|3,202916|3) - The layering is fine, but I think adding minijacks in as well might be a little too much.
- 03:23:718 (203718|2) - Patterning-wise, this should probably be an LN as well.
- 03:47:191 (227191|1) - move to col 0 (you don't use this for a little bit so you should probably put something there)
- 03:54:405 (234405|1) - What's this note mapped to?
- 03:55:550 (235550|1) - This note feels like it's more on the 1/3 than 1/4.
Hope this helps and best of luck!